Cuts continue as Google seeks to make Moto competitive

Google confirmed plans to lay off another 1,200 Motorola staff as it desperately seeks a return to profitability for its multi-billion dollar acquisition.

The cutbacks, which will affect staff in the United States, China and India, are in addition to the 4,000 job losses the Silicon Valley giant announced last summer.

Google paid $12.5bn (UK£8.3bn, AUD$12.1bn) for the hardware manufacturer in a deal rubber-stamped last May, partly to boost its Android operating system, but also to acquire Moto's vast locker of 17,000 patents.

In an internal email leaked to the Wall Street Journal, Motorola told staff: "Our costs are too high, we're operating in markets where we're not competitive and we're losing money."

Positive hopes

Google is currently working through the cycle of products Motorola already had in motion at the time of purchase and announced an operating loss of $152m for Q4 of 2012, back in January.

The company said it has "lots of positive hopes" for many of the new smartphones and tablets in the pipeline and assured that it "was not in the business of losing money" with Motorola.

That will be no consolation for the workers who won't be part of this transition. The number of job losses now surpasses 5,000, which is around a quarter of all employees on the books before the buyout.

"These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer," confirmed Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick.

"It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition."